That was the quote this afternoon from the auctioneer with Schrader Real Estate and Auction Company selling the 1972 JD 4020 diesel, side console tractor (pictured above) with 4,180 original "1 owner" hours on a Columbia City, IN auction. He was right....it did sell for $30,000.

Bidders were salivating for this beautiful, original, low hour 1972 4020. The online pre-bid was already up to $14,950. When the live auction chant started the first bid came in at $20,000. Within 45 seconds the bidding was up to $25,000. "First one to $30,000 wins it."

Yep.

$30,000 is the higheset auction sale price I've seen on a JD 4020 that wasn't a super rare Hi Crop or front-wheel assist model since a November 21, 2007 farm auction in northwest Ohio where I saw this 1972 JD 4020 diesel with only 2,499 actual "1 owner" hours sell for $31,000:

Here are a few more pics of the 1972 JD 4020 sold on the Indiana auction today for $30,000:

I don't see these adjectives too often when it comes to covering farm machinery auctions. Occasionally, they come into play, unfortunately mostly on farm estate auctions where the owner has recently purchased the piece of equipment, but passed away before ever getting the chance to put it to work in the field.

That is the circumstance with the planter pictured above, a 2014 John Deere 1770NT 16R-30 CCS planter coming up for sale on a Feb. 26, 2014 farm estate auction in Mt. Ayr, IA. Here are the full specs on this planter:

A love story really. Love of a man and his trusty old tractor he'd used well for 48 years, but also a family love story for Grandpa/Dad. The story came my way via our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/machinerypete) this week. I got the following note from Kyle H. from Carbondale, IL:

Dear Pete: "This picture (above) is of a 1964 4020 powershift that my grandfather Gerald Palm bought new in Havana, IL. The tractor was used daily up until about 5 years ago. Grandpa always dreamed of seeing it look new again, but didn't figure he would because he had lung cancer and was getting in bad shape, so for Christmas my father and I began to bring it back to life. Before restoration the tractor had well over 14,000 hours and spent a lot of its life outside. Within a little over a month there wasn't a bolt untouched and everything rebuilt. He (Grandpa) was like a kid in a candy store to see the final product and passed away November 2012."

Here are a couple pics of the restoration work in process:

Kyle relayed more about Grandpa's 4020:

"The tractor was featured in Antique Power July/August 2012 edition. He used it to do everything from plowing to feeding livestock to using as tranportation to check cows when a pickup would get stuck. All the parts came from Deere except the tach which was an OEM red needle powershift tach which came from eBay because it is discontinued from Deere."

"He was hesitant for years to do a restoration because he loved to use the tractor and didn't want to scratch the paint whenever it would get finished!"

What a beautiful, thoughtful and truly special gift to give to your father/grandfather in the twilight of his life...his favorite tractor from a life of farming, brought back to like new condition. Like I said...a love story.

For a pair of very slick JD 4440 tractors with higher number of hours sold at auction this past week. Today (February 1, 2014) as a matter of fact on the 1981 JD 4440 pictured above. This 1981 4440 with a total of 5,898 hours sold for $29,500 on a farm auction in west-central Illinois. This on top of the 1979 JD 4440 with 6,756 hours sold for $29,000 on a farm auction last Saturday (January 25, 2014) in north-central Ohio. I just posted a Youtube video showing that beautiful 4440 selling, here it is, enjoy:

Just more solid proof here folks with both these JD 4440's how older used tractors in very good condition are holding their value and in fact, even RISING in value as they age. Not long ago 4440's with pushing 6,000 to 7,000 hours, no matter how nice, would have had NO chance of pushing $30K at auction...but right now? You bet they do.